What is

Contemporary
Art?
Lesson 1
Objectives
At the end of the lesson, you are expected to:
• define the term "contemporary art" in art historical,
cultural and stylistic terms;
• explain the difference between contemporary art
and modern art in the context of the Philippines'
various histories, cultures, and identities;
• demonstrate the major characteristics of
contemporary art through an artwork that would
require teamwork and collaboration;
• appreciate the role of contemporary art and artists
in Philippine contemporary life; and,
• understand contemporary issues and their
relationship to real life situations.
What is contemporary?
Is it the same as being modern?
 HISTORICAL OVERVIEW: PHILIPPINE ART
TIME PRE- SPANISH AMERICAN JAPANESE POSTWAR 70s -
FORM CONQUEST PERIOD PERIOD PERIOD REPUBLIC CONTEMPO
PAINTING Pottery; body Religious, Landscape, Wartime scene Modern; Figurative,
adornment, secular portraiture, (aggression, conservative, non-figurative,
ornament genre, interior, nationalism, abstract art for art’s
still life atrocities, experimental, sake;
SCULPTURE Pottery; Santos, Free standing, symbolic, public art multimedia,
carving, wood furniture, relief, public protest, mixed media,
work, metal reliefs, altar aspiration for transmedia
work & pieces, jewelry, peace);
expression metalwork, Propaganda;
pieta, Indigenizing &
ornamentation Orientalizing
Works
ARCHITECTUR Dwelling & Church, plaza City planning, Public Works Real Estate, safe housing,
E houses; complex; town parks, accessories, tenements,
worship areas, planning; waterfronts, squatters, convention arch,
official fortification, civic/govt condos, malls, subdivisions,
residences, civic bldgs., structures, etc. low-cost housing
mosque
1 4

2
5
 5

1 3
What is contemporary art?
What is modern art?
 STYLISTIC OVERVIEW: PHILIPPINE ART
SPANISH/ISLAMIC AMERICAN POSTMODERN/
FORM PRECOLONIAL MODERN
COLONIAL COLONIAL CONTEMPORARY

Incipient,
triumvirate,
Collaborative,
13 moderns,
PAINTING abstract, neorealist,
hyper-realist, new
painting
surreal,
Religious, secular, expressionist
Classical, idyllic,
formal, naturalistic,
nostalgic Junk/scrap,
Religious (animist or academic
Duchampian, arte
Islamic); covera, neo-
community-based Abstract
SCULPTURE expressionism
indigenous, site-
Inter-Ethnic specific,
relations, Collective performance art,
history hybrid
Filipino
Church, plaza architecture, urban
Neoclassic, art
worship related and International planning, economic
deco, art nouveau,
ARCHITECTURE residential industrializing, zone,
California Mission
Earthquake baroque eclectic neovernacular,
style
Hispanic revivalist prefab, regionalist,
cosmopolitan
 CULTURAL OVERVIEW: PHILIPPINE ART
INDIGENOUS POPULAR or
ISLAMIC or PHIL FOLK or FINE or WORLD-
FORM SOUTHEAST URBAN and
MUSLIM LOWLAND BASED
ASIAN MASS-BASED

PAINTING

Museum-
circulated,
SCULPTURE Colonial and Mass produced,
Ritual and Governance artist-centered,
Post-colonial market-oriented
gallery-
distributed

ARCHITECTURE
 “Art made and
produced by
Contemporary Art is

artists living
today.”
- J. Paul Getty Museum
It is not restricted to individual
experience but it is reflective of the
world we live in. Events in the world
having an effect to the Philippines.

Artwork that is created by today’s

contemporary artists and has a
world view, and is sensitive to
changing times.
The modern Filipino has more freedom to
explore on his own.

The forms maybe universal but the

content is local.

Many artist use color for their emotional

rather than intellectual values.
It has evolved into wide variety of
expressions and medium turning the
country into a situation of creative
upheavals.

It is a search for a new.

It is doing what no one has done before.

What are the similarities and
differences of contemporary art
and modern art?
1.Modern art refers to the period that
began in the 1860s and that lasted
until the 1960s. Contemporary art
can be said to be the art that was
developed after the 1960s and is still
emerging.
2. They emphasized on the
subjective representation of subjects
rather than focusing on realism that
was prevalent before the 1880s.
3. Contemporary art is one created
by artists who are still living. The late
1900s saw major social, political,
and cultural reformations across the
world which had greatly influenced
this art form.
4.Unlike modern art, contemporary
art has some social impact.
Moreover, contemporary artists had
significant freedom and liberty to
experiment with all styles.
What are the general characteristics
of contemporary art?
1) there are no general characteristics;

2) extreme eclecticism obtains, where

every style, media, period, artist can all
exist simultaneously;

3) is interpenetrated by the market in

ways reminiscent of the past, though in
many ways unlike anything seen before at
least in scope;
4) painting does not dominate;

5) contemporary art tends to feed off of,

derives its inspiration from images,
developments- what have you, from
something called quaintly-mass media,
the Internet;
6) has a great many more modalities to
give form: soundscapes, odorscapes,
performance, video and some un-named
to cite but a few;

7) more people doing it, involved in it and

“professionalized” with degrees specific to
it than at any time in the past.